Yay! Spring has finally sprung around our place. In fact, we may have skipped spring and gone traight from winter into summer. But, we're not complaining! After snow in April and freezing temps in May, we are welcoming the sunshine and mild weather with thankful hearts and open arms. While we continue to pray for rain, we are most grateful for God's provision of these warm, beautiful days so that we may get some work done outside.
I am so excited that our garden is finally, at last (after a couple of failed attempts) underway. In fact, not only is it underway, we actually have sprouts. We look forward to a harvest of corn, squash, beans, peppers, cucumber and lettuce. Not to mention, our herbs we started in containers are doing well. We planted basil, rosemary and, our favorite, cilantro.
Our little patch of land that would become the garden.
I, of course, mean Erik. 
The completed box before we filled it with soil and compost.
Cilantro. Yum!!
See? I did help some.
This is a victory garden indeed as we definitely felt victorious after filling it with 5 truckloads
of soil and compost. We had the help of some awesome friends who not only picked the dirt up
in their truck but helped to fill the box as well.
Corn
Summer Squash
And, there is an unexpected addition to our spring line up: five sweet, Blue Swedish ducks, courtesy of some generous friends who gave us some from their brood. The ducks are cute and fun, and most important, they are dearly loved by all of us. Well, almost all of us love the ducks. Bella the Beagle is still warming to them. We are excited to have eggs in about 4 months and thrilled to up our pet total from one to six. And, in response to the question we seem to get most often: no, we will not be¨ eating these ducks. We've named them, how could we eat them? The girls named them (until we figure out for sure our male to female ratio): Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Luna. Fitting, as they are quite magical little creatures if I do say so myself.
Of course, our ducks needed a home. I had to smile and giggle as Erik, who merely tolerated our decision to get the ducks, attempted to use some scrap pallets to build their home. When the pallets truned out to be a bit more worn than we anticipated, he decided it just wouldn't do for our little feathered friends. He went and bought all new wood and wire and built them a duck mansion. He was even patient enough to let the girls get in on the fun. They loved helping their daddy and learning to use his new tools.
Hahahaha - If you know my girls, you know why this is indeed picture perfect!
They had so much fun helping daddy.
Eventually we will add an upper shelf with a ramp for a nesting area. But the ducks already
love their new digs.
So, what to do with all that pallet wood we collected for the ducks? Erik, determined to not let it go to waste, tackled a few other honey-do projects. How blessed am I that it brings him joy to make me things? Here are a few of the projects he completed:
A pallet tray for my patio table.
A shelf for my kitchen to hold some of my dry goods. This is such a great storage solution
in our little kitchen. I painted the rims of the mason jars a mint color and the top of each is painted in chalkboard paint and labeled with the contents.
My Valentine's Day present from my love.
Oh, and the birdcage? I found that in our alley dumpster when we were clearing out some debris from the garden. Score! A fresh coat of light blue paint and it makes quite a cute addition to our cozy living room.
I can't look around my little backyard farm or home and not see signs of new life, restoration and growth. These are such lovely reminders of the work Christ is doing in my heart daily. I hope your summer is off to a blessed start and continues to be full of the joys and delights that only come in this sunniest of seasons.
In Christ,
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